BHD1000 News

Citigroup unveils moratorium on foreclosures, plans to reach out to 500,000 at-risk borrowers NEW YORK (AP) –

 Citigroup says it is imposing a moratorium on most foreclosures as part of a series of initiatives aimed at helping at-risk borrowers remain in their homes — making Citi the latest big bank to announce sweeping efforts to try to curtail losses from souring mortgages.

WASHINGTON – President-elect Obama and President Bush met in the Oval Office Monday, a visit that comes during a historic shifting of power to a new administration.

Obama and his wife, Michelle, arrived at the South Portico 11 minutes early with President Bush and first lady Laura Bush waiting for them. Mrs. Bush and Mrs. Obama enjoyed a warm greeting, while the president and his successor exchanged smiles and a handshake.

Taking a bit of prerogative, the president-elect put his left hand on Bush’s back as the two couples entered the Diplomatic Reception Room.

 The Action Plan If You’re Selling:

Wait it out

Make your place shine

Price it below market

Sound painful? A recent study by a Chicago appraiser found that houses priced below market ended up selling for more than similar houses listed above market. That’s because lower prices attract more buyers.

If You’re Buying:

Look for homes that have been sitting around

Improve your credit score

CHICAGO – President-elect Obama said Friday that the country is facing the greatest economic challenge in a lifetime and “we’re going to have to act swiftly to resolve it.”

In his first news conference since winning the presidency Tuesday, Obama said Congress must pass an economic stimulus measure either before or just after he takes office in January. He also said unemployment benefits need to be extended.

But he deferred to President Bush and his economic team on major decisions in the coming weeks.

“The United States has only one government and one president at a time,” Obama said.

  Reuters – President-elect Sen. Barack Obama faces supporters during his election night victory rally in Chicago, …

WASHINGTON — President-elect Barack Obama will face some of the most daunting challenges that any new president has confronted since at least 1981, when America tumbled into a severe recession with its prestige ebbing around the world.

He faces the immediate task of leading a nation that’s reeling from its most serious economic downturn in a generation, one whose government is saddled with a federal deficit that’s heading for $1 trillion this year.

WASHINGTON – Barack Obama was elected the nation’s first black president Tuesday night in a historic triumph that overcame racial barriers as old as America itself.

The son of a black father from Kenya and a white mother from Kansas, the Democratic senator from Illinois sealed his victory by defeating Republican Sen. John McCain in a string of wins in hard-fought battleground states — Ohio, Florida, Virginia and Iowa.

A huge crowd in Grant Park in Chicago erupted in jubilation at the news of Obama’s victory. Some wept.

Today’s housing market may be bad news for borrowers saddled with mortgages they can’t afford and developers stuck with houses or condos they can’t sell. But it can be a golden opportunity for first-time home buyers.

Home prices in the 20 largest metropolitan areas have fallen 17% over the past two years. Meanwhile, the average interest rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was recently 6.5%, which is low by historical standards.

Can You Stay Put?

Aside from the price itself, purchasing a home is an expensive process. As the buyer, you’ll have to pay closing costs for expenses such as a title search, title insurance, attorney’s fees and much more. In fact, those expenses typically total 3% to 5% of the purchase price.

Are Your Financial Ducks in a Row?

When applying for a mortgage, three factors are critical: your income, your down payment and your credit score.

How Much Can You Afford?

Rather than stretch your finances to the max, think about what you can comfortably fit into your budget.

Are You Ready For the Responsibility?

Your home will likely be the biggest investment you ever make, so you need to be mentally and financially prepared to take it on.

Do You Know What You’re Looking For?

 Think practical, If you drive to work, look for the most convenient route. If staying downtown is a priority, you may have to scale down your vision to a condo. “If you start out looking for the perfect home, you’re not going to find it,” says Elizabeth Blakeslee, of the National Association of Realtors. “You need to think about what’s important to you.”

Fed slashes key interest rate by half-point to 1 percent in effort to combat financial crisis

 WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve has slashed a key interest rate by half a percentage point as it seeks to revive an economy hit by a long list of maladies stemming from the most severe financial crisis in decades. The central bank on Wednesday reduced its target for the federal funds rate, the interest banks charge on overnight loans, to 1 percent, a low last seen in 2003-2004. The funds rate has not been lower since 1958, when Dwight Eisenhower was president. The cut marked the second half-point reduction in the funds rate this month. The Fed slashed the rate by that amount in a coordinated move with foreign central banks on Oct. 8.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. consumer confidence dived to a record low in October as plunging home values and a severe financial crisis left Americans anxious about their jobs and pessimistic about the future.

The Conference Board said on Tuesday its index measuring consumer sentiment tumbled to 38.0 in October, down from 61.4 in September and the lowest reading since the index was first published back in 1967

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The average retail price for a gallon of gasoline in the United States plunged more steeply than ever over the last two weeks as the economic slowdown weighed on crude oil and drove consumers off of the roads, according to the latest nationwide Lundberg survey.

Prices will likely slide more, but at a slower pace, following the “extraordinary” decline this month, survey editor Trilby Lundberg said on Sunday.

The national average price for a gallon of self-serve, regular unleaded gas was $2.7785 on October 24, a decline of about 53 cents per gallon in the past two weeks, according to the survey of some 7,000 gas stations

For consumers, the economic downturn indicates one thing: Now’s the time to do everything you can to protect your finances. Here are four additional smart money moves to make in a downturn.

Convert to a Roth

The down markets may decimate your retirement savings, but they also provide a rare opportunity: To convert your traditional IRA into a Roth IRA with a reduced tax hit.

Create a Budget

“Watch every dime coming into your house, because tomorrow it could be a nickel,”

Eliminate Debt

Sound investing is one way to shore up your personal balance sheet. But if today’s stock market has you spooked, you can get a nearly unbeatable return by focusing on paying off debts instead.

Boost Your Credit Score

These days, having a low credit score is a surefire way to get rejected for a major loan or mortgage. Even if you gain approval, you’ll still end up paying through the nose in interest.

WASHINGTON – Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, describing the current financial crisis as a “once-in-a-century credit tsunami” acknowledged Thursday that the crisis has exposed flaws in his thinking and in the workings of the free-market system.

Greenspan told the House Oversight Committee that his belief that banks would be more prudent in their lending practices because of the need to protect their stockholders had been proven wrong by the current crisis. He called this a “mistake” in his views and said he had been shocked by that.

Greenspan said he had made a “mistake” in believing that banks in operating in their self-interest would be sufficient to protect their shareholders and the equity in their institutions.

Greenspan called this “a flaw in the model that I perceived is the critical functioning structure that defines how the world works.”

Princeton, N.J. – John McCain is a maverick and Barack Obama is a postpartisan problem-solver. But you wouldn’t know it by looking at their economic plans. Both candidates’ proposals faithfully reflect the traditional economic priorities of their respective parties. That makes the track records of past Democratic and Republican administrations a very useful benchmark for assessing how the economy might perform under a President McCain or a President Obama. The bottom line: During the past 60 years, Democrats have presided over much less unemployment and much more robust income growth.

The $52.5 billion plan Senator McCain announced last week includes $36 billion in tax breaks for senior citizens withdrawing funds from retirement accounts and $10 billion for a reduction in the capital gains tax. Those are perks for investors, most of whom are relatively affluent. (McCain is also proposing a two-year suspension of taxes on unemployment benefits, but that’s a fraction of the plan’s cost.) He also favors broader tax cuts for businesses and wants to extend President Bush’s massive tax cuts indefinitely, even for people earning more than $250,000 per year

WASHINGTON – Momentum is building for a fresh dose of economic stimulants to boost the country out of the doldrums — perhaps by putting more money in Americans’ pockets. The White House said Monday that President Bush was open to some sort of action after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke warned the slump could drag on without the extra bracing tonic.

On Wall Street, stocks bolted higher, with the Dow Jones industrials rising 413 points. There also were some new signs that credit conditions were thawing a bit.

Clearly housing is still in the dumps. During the second quarter, home prices dropped 15.4% over the same period last year, according to the S&P.

It’s not pretty. But it’s adding injury to insult to pay property taxes based on a home value assessed during the housing bubble.

Not all towns adjust their assessments every year to reflect the current market. While some municipalities do revalue properties annually, others do so every five years, says Sharon McCabe, associate director of the Graaskamp Center for Real Estate at the University of Wisconsin. So if your home was last assessed during the market peak, it makes sense to consider challenging the assessment, says Noreen Perrotta, money editor for Consumer Reports.

When to seek a reassessment isn’t an exact science. It depends on how much your home’s value has declined, and on what sort of dollar gain you’ll likely get in your tax bill, says Keith Gumbinger, vice president of HSH Associates, a mortgage information provider. If you’re paying $1,000 in property taxes and getting your home reassessed will drop that by 10%, you’re pocketing $100 — probably not enough to justify the effort of an appeal. But if you can save, say, $500 or more, it’s probably worth it.

Here’s

When the headlines about the housing market are apocalyptic, the last thing a homeowner wants to do is sell. But a funny thing happened to Jeff and Jennifer Boyd when they put their three-bedroom house in Philadelphia’s Graduate Hospital district on the market this summer: They turned a profit. Just 45 days after the listing went up, a buyer snapped up the property for $555,000 — $29,000 more than the Boyds paid in 2006. “We were pretty hesitant, knowing what the market is like,” says Jeff. “But a few weeks later, it was gone.”Here’s a surefire way to start an argument: Suggest that the housing market has reached bottom. To be sure, the near-term outlook is still grim, and nobody is forecasting a rapid nationwide rebound. But there are signs that the overbuilding and speculative pricing that inflated the bubble are working their way through the system. In October 2005, near the peak of the boom, the median sales price for a U.S. home reached 7.3 times per capita income; by this May it had fallen to 5.7, in line with historical norms. Nationally, the rate of decline in sales is slowing, and in some regions sales numbers have actually perked up. “The indicators are starting to look better,” says Adam York, an economic analyst with Wachovia.